Australia cancels $7 billion satellite contract with Lockheed Martin
The Australian government today announced it has canceled a $7 billion contract with Lockheed Martin, issued only eighteen months ago, to build geosynchronous communications satellites for its military.
The project — known as JP9102 — was expected to include locally controlled and operated geostationary communications satellites, as well as multiple ground stations, but on Monday the Department of Defence confirmed it no longer met “strategic priorities”.
“With the acceleration in space technologies and evolving threats in space since the project’s commencement, defence has assessed that a single orbit GEO-based satellite communications system would not meet strategic priorities,” the statement read. “As such, defence has decided to cease its current procurement activity with Lockheed Martin Australia for a single orbit GEO-based satellite communications system.”
The project had been initiated by the previous government. The new Labor government however appears less interested in defense spending, and has been cutting related government space projects aggressively.
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The Australian government today announced it has canceled a $7 billion contract with Lockheed Martin, issued only eighteen months ago, to build geosynchronous communications satellites for its military.
The project — known as JP9102 — was expected to include locally controlled and operated geostationary communications satellites, as well as multiple ground stations, but on Monday the Department of Defence confirmed it no longer met “strategic priorities”.
“With the acceleration in space technologies and evolving threats in space since the project’s commencement, defence has assessed that a single orbit GEO-based satellite communications system would not meet strategic priorities,” the statement read. “As such, defence has decided to cease its current procurement activity with Lockheed Martin Australia for a single orbit GEO-based satellite communications system.”
The project had been initiated by the previous government. The new Labor government however appears less interested in defense spending, and has been cutting related government space projects aggressively.
The support of my readers through the years has given me the freedom and ability to analyze objectively the ongoing renaissance in space, as well as the cultural changes -- for good or ill -- that are happening across America. Four years ago, just before the 2020 election I wrote that Joe Biden's mental health was suspect. Only in this year has the propaganda mainstream media decided to recognize that basic fact.
Fourteen years ago I wrote that SLS and Orion were a bad ideas, a waste of money, would be years behind schedule, and better replaced by commercial private enterprise. Even today NASA and Congress refuse to recognize this reality.
In 2020 when the world panicked over COVID I wrote that the panic was unnecessary, that the virus was apparently simply a variation of the flu, that masks were not simply pointless but if worn incorrectly were a health threat, that the lockdowns were a disaster and did nothing to stop the spread of COVID. Only in the past year have some of our so-called experts in the health field have begun to recognize these facts.
Your help allows me to do this kind of intelligent analysis. I take no advertising or sponsors, so my reporting isn't influenced by donations by established space or drug companies. Instead, I rely entirely on donations and subscriptions from my readers, which gives me the freedom to write what I think, unencumbered by outside influences.
Please consider supporting my work here at Behind the Black.
You can support me either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. There are five ways of doing so:
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5. Donate by check, payable to Robert Zimmerman and mailed to
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Phew! For a second, I worried that stupid, short-sighted decisions were only made north of the equator.
Probably a good decision even if – coming from a Labour government – also likely made for the wrong reasons. The era of gold-plated GEO milsats is rapidly going away in favor of far cheaper and more numerous LEO and/or MEO milsats. Whether Australian or U.S., $7 billion is a lot of money. Australia would be far better off spending that on almost anything else than what was originally proposed.
Likely correct decision for the wrong reason as Dick says.. Australia should get on board with StarShield. We are a US satrapy anyway.